Well, week 11 is off to an interesting start. I have been using my new approach to having fun and cutting back on the amount of material my students are completing. I am giving them more time in class and going over assignments with them without expecting them to actually read directions. Biology will be using their Guided Reading Organizer (GRO) on their quiz tomorrow (I have strategically done this because the worksheet itself is due tomorrow and I want to reiterate the importance of doing your homework. Also, I plan on making it a timed quiz so my students I caught copying, will still be S.O.L.)
Physical Science - I have been re-teaching and teaching slope for 2 weeks now. I am so tired of it!!! I am giving them a quiz tomorrow on calculating slope and the quiz is going to be the EXACT same worksheet we have been working on for the past 2 weeks (on and off). Don't have any other ideas on how to teach calculation of slope and y-intercept. I am not a math teacher, but I am doing the best I can. I have had them use whiteboards, work with partners, work individually, I have lectured, worked out problems on the board with them, and came up with data charts for them to plot relevant to their lives. I am officially done until I find a new way to teach slope. There is only so much I can do as a teacher before they have to step up to the base to bat.
Had ANOTHER parent meeting this morning. This makes my 6th this school year. I am trying to stay optimistic about them because if the parent actually shows up, it shows they care somewhat about their child's education. That is if they show up. In the parent meeting this morning, the student has an 87% average on her tests, exams, and quizzes and a 52% on her homework and performance based assessments. This means she is lazy. Not incapable of learning, just plain lazy. The way our grades are distributed, only 40% of her grade is based on her tests. This means the rest of her grade comes from her participation in labs, and her completion of homework. She has a 61% in my class = LAZY. I very politely told the mother that, "we started the school year off to a great start, and somewhere around September, I noticed a downward trend in her enthusiasm for the course." The student just smiled, laughed and said, "yeah, i haven't been doing my work." All the teachers went around echoing the same response that I gave and then we got to the math teacher......
The math class most freshmen enter in to is a self-paced math course. They are placed in this math course pending the results of their standardized math test scores. If they are testing below grade level, they are placed in this math class with a math teacher, a workbook, and a computer with software loaded on it to automatically cater to the students math level they are reaching as they progress. Great idea right? Yeah - it is a great idea if there was some accountability for these students! They start at the 3rd GRADE MATH LEVEL! I am talking adding and subtracting 3 digit numbers. AT THE FRESHMEN LEVEL! Now, I am all for reinforcement and re-teaching standards and if that is where the student is testing at, then that is where they need to start. But - my student who is able to get a B average on her tests in my room, is STILL AT THE 3rd GRADE LEVEL IN HER MATH CLASS! WHAT?! This speaks only to the student. What accountability does she have to keep progressing in math? Where is she being held accountable for her laziness and taking the place of another student who desperately needs that class? I know her being in that class is taking up a seat, taking up the teachers time, and one more paper/worksheet to grade for that teacher for a student that should have tested out of that class within the first 3 weeks of school?!? This class only goes up to the middle school math levels. Once the kids test up to that level, they are placed in a more traditional math classroom.
I am shocked and appalled at this revelation. What are we doing in education? This is a perfect example of how we are cutting off her legs when all she needed was a cast to fix her broken bones? Now I am realizing how the institution of public education has become so broke. No wonder we have no money. All these kids have been conditioned to do is the bare minimum to get by, and teachers keep lowering their standards so they can pass more kids. Even with this mode of operation, students are still failing.
So, Miss Genius - what is the solution? How would I fix this? Well - I would enroll in the military and become the nastiest drill sergeant this world has ever seen. I would get in these kids faces and tell them they are going to amount to a worthless piece of......of......i don't know yet. Yeah, that would work? I think not. The truth is it is more of a cultural belief? Socio-economic belief? I am not sure. What I do know is that it constant circle that keeps going around and around and around and if it moves any direction, it seems to be down.
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